Oswaldo Costa
Oswaldo Costa
Ladies, gentlemen, and lurkers, welcome to the greatest show on earth. Inside this giant tent you will find the vinous equivalents of bearded ladies, dwarves, and giants, muscular acrobats and beautiful tight-rope jumpers, their tales augmented by vignettes and sidebars containing truisms and hearsay.
Perhaps I embroider, but much of interest came to pass during a recent, two-week visit to a score of natural wine luminaries from the Loire, the epicenter of the natural wine movement. The sum of what feeble memory serves and a trusty wine-stained notebook contains will be imparted for your vicarious pleasure, serialized in four easy installments.
Loire Part 1: Quick to Angers
Monday, October 11
Flying into Charles de Gaulle at the crack of noon we picked up our rental with, for the first time ever, a GPS. Marcia, whose job it is to navigate, had long pined for one, but it had eluded us since the pining began, for reasons that also eluded us. To break the ice, we chose Portuguese as the language of guidance, but since Brazilian Portuguese was not an option, the gizmo greeted us with the accent of our foremothers. So we named her Amlia, in honor of the immortal Fado chantress Amlia Rodrigues, and set off for Angers. The three hour drive was uneventful, but it was only after Amlia sent us the wrong-way down the Hotel du Mails street that we managed to maneuver into the driveway and check into the charming ancient premises, decorated in a distastefully tacky modern manner. The staff was attentive, but our second story room was no better than adequate, and the lack of an elevator combined poorly with our heavy suitcases.
Dinner at Le Salamandre
Dont ever arrive in France on a Sunday or Monday. Most of the better restaurants are closed, so we slunk over to the only recommended one that was open. Le Salamandre appears in a few guides, but served disappointing food made from good ingredients. The wine list was weak, but a fair percentage was available as halves. Since no halves remained of the Epir Savennires, we ordered a Closel La Jalousie which was premoxed (at least I got no typicity argument once the waiter tasted it), so had to content ourselves with our third choice:
2006 Dom. de Baumard Clos Saint Yves 13.0% 375ml
Screw cap; jasmine, fennel, wet stones; dilute, caramel sweetness, needs more acidity.
2005 Chateau de la Grille Chinon 14.5% 375ml
Sour cherry, leather, eucalyptus; good balance, good weight. Nice surprise.
Tuesday, October 12
A Rolling Stone Gathers no Mosse
We kicked off on the right foot with a morning visit to Ren Mosse, friendly and in good spirits. From behind a bar-shaped stand he chatted and poured, and it all felt like the ideal store tasting, one in which you have the producer to yourself for almost two hours. No sign of Agns. While we were there, one of the winerys employees came in to announce that the last harvest (Savennires) was finished. Sighing, Ren said that 2010 had not turned out so good (something I would not hear from anybody else); too much rain, too many grapes bloated and/or rotten.
Mosse uses zero or low SO2, but filters, finding the latter a lesser evil as refermentation insurance (something I would hear from several vignerons in the coming days). We talked about why wines close down: Mosse thinks its the result of excessive SO2; you dont notice it at first because the fruit is still very present, but then the wine shuts down, and stays closed until the SO2 starts to fade many years later (this dissipation is controversial; some sans soufre practitioners I spoke to think it never happens).
While tasting the whites, I remarked how they all had fennel notes; Mosse said that was the mark of the vintage. The two Anjou crus were just outstanding, certainly among the most impressive young whites I have ever tasted. Comparing the Rouchefer to the Bonnes Blanches, Mosse said the former was rounder, like a tube, whereas the latter was pointed, like a sharp tip.
2009 Anjou Blanc
Young vines (
Perhaps I embroider, but much of interest came to pass during a recent, two-week visit to a score of natural wine luminaries from the Loire, the epicenter of the natural wine movement. The sum of what feeble memory serves and a trusty wine-stained notebook contains will be imparted for your vicarious pleasure, serialized in four easy installments.
Loire Part 1: Quick to Angers
Monday, October 11
Flying into Charles de Gaulle at the crack of noon we picked up our rental with, for the first time ever, a GPS. Marcia, whose job it is to navigate, had long pined for one, but it had eluded us since the pining began, for reasons that also eluded us. To break the ice, we chose Portuguese as the language of guidance, but since Brazilian Portuguese was not an option, the gizmo greeted us with the accent of our foremothers. So we named her Amlia, in honor of the immortal Fado chantress Amlia Rodrigues, and set off for Angers. The three hour drive was uneventful, but it was only after Amlia sent us the wrong-way down the Hotel du Mails street that we managed to maneuver into the driveway and check into the charming ancient premises, decorated in a distastefully tacky modern manner. The staff was attentive, but our second story room was no better than adequate, and the lack of an elevator combined poorly with our heavy suitcases.
Dinner at Le Salamandre
Dont ever arrive in France on a Sunday or Monday. Most of the better restaurants are closed, so we slunk over to the only recommended one that was open. Le Salamandre appears in a few guides, but served disappointing food made from good ingredients. The wine list was weak, but a fair percentage was available as halves. Since no halves remained of the Epir Savennires, we ordered a Closel La Jalousie which was premoxed (at least I got no typicity argument once the waiter tasted it), so had to content ourselves with our third choice:
2006 Dom. de Baumard Clos Saint Yves 13.0% 375ml
Screw cap; jasmine, fennel, wet stones; dilute, caramel sweetness, needs more acidity.
2005 Chateau de la Grille Chinon 14.5% 375ml
Sour cherry, leather, eucalyptus; good balance, good weight. Nice surprise.
Tuesday, October 12
We kicked off on the right foot with a morning visit to Ren Mosse, friendly and in good spirits. From behind a bar-shaped stand he chatted and poured, and it all felt like the ideal store tasting, one in which you have the producer to yourself for almost two hours. No sign of Agns. While we were there, one of the winerys employees came in to announce that the last harvest (Savennires) was finished. Sighing, Ren said that 2010 had not turned out so good (something I would not hear from anybody else); too much rain, too many grapes bloated and/or rotten.
Mosse uses zero or low SO2, but filters, finding the latter a lesser evil as refermentation insurance (something I would hear from several vignerons in the coming days). We talked about why wines close down: Mosse thinks its the result of excessive SO2; you dont notice it at first because the fruit is still very present, but then the wine shuts down, and stays closed until the SO2 starts to fade many years later (this dissipation is controversial; some sans soufre practitioners I spoke to think it never happens).
While tasting the whites, I remarked how they all had fennel notes; Mosse said that was the mark of the vintage. The two Anjou crus were just outstanding, certainly among the most impressive young whites I have ever tasted. Comparing the Rouchefer to the Bonnes Blanches, Mosse said the former was rounder, like a tube, whereas the latter was pointed, like a sharp tip.
2009 Anjou Blanc
Young vines (
